Sheered/Sheared heels
Hello Hello , Monday Monday - so good to me.
ok . How's everyone ?
Lately i've been talking a bit about heels particularly sheared / sheered heels and the difficulty involved in the repair. So lets bring this to focus and talk about two options of repair. The first will be a quick fix repair the second the full on fix. Either way works - the later however will usually require some layup time.
In the past i've talked about long toe syndrome when the front of the horses foot is allowed to drift forward ( i call it bozo the clown feet ). What typically happens when the toe drifts forward is the whole foot drifts as well pulling the heels forward in the process - hence the sheered heels. Usually you'll get some contraction of the heels as well. Sheered or contracted heels are a big problem for two reasons right off .
1- The sheered/Forward heel does not support the back of the foot - when the horse travels on it's feet the heel will then sink into the ground before it actually breaks over and comes off the ground, this stretches the deep flexor tendon putting alot of pressure on the Navicular bones.
2- When you combine the contraction ( squeezing of the heels inward) with the sheered/forward heel basically you're doubling up on the Navicular bone stress. Serious issues needing attention.
So lets look at reducing the risk of lameness regarding these issues.
First fix is rather simple. If your horse has sheered heels they run forward - so simply put a shoe on that extends past the heel . The rule of thumb is not to extend the heel of the shoe farther than the bulbs of the foot. As a general rule i add extra shoe rearward as explained but not necessarily all the way to the bulb of the foot. I don't usually have any problem with doing so. Occasionally a rear foot will come up and clip the front foot pulling at the extended heel part of the shoe ( But not often ). If it becomes problesome then shorten the shoe until the pulling/clipping stops. So what you've done with the extended shoe is support the heel of the foot - relieved stretch on the deep flexor tendon and stress on the navicular bones as well.
What you're not going to fix with the above method ( usually ) is fixing the actual slope of the sheered heel. Once the heel has "Slope" /sheered heel the angle of the sheer is constantly under pressure which just keeps forcing the sheer into the foot. The way to look at it is - if you placed a 12 inch ruler so it stands up on end basically it will support alot of weight . Now start to move the top of the ruler forward until a angle starts to form. As the angle gets more severe the load taken by the ruler is seriously compromised - support is lost. With the horses foot and sheered heels that angle will continually stretch forward due to the downward pressures exerted by the weight of the horse.
If all your horse had was the sheered heel but no contraction - well - it's actually "OK" if and as long as you fit the shoe longer to support the foot. In other words the sheered heel in and of itself won't harm your horse. I shoe horses with sheered heels as explained above often with no problems at all. The reason we decide to shoe them that way is the owner is not willing to go through the "Lay up time" to do the full repair. ok .. next.
The full repair.
What it amounts to is removing "All" the heel from the foot. Sitting the hoof all the way down in the heels almost to where the horse is on the bulbs of the foot. By doing so you have removed all the "Angle" that is constantly stretching and pressing forward perpetuating the sheered heel problem. You've sat the foot all the way down to exactly where the heel "Starts" to grow from ( The hairline ). Now when the foot starts to grow out the heel has a chance to grow straight / er up and down with a much greater chance of the heel not sheering anymore - expecially if you're having the toe of the hoof rasped to the rear stopping the long toe issues as well. This is going to take about 5 months until the heels grow back in .
The one drawback of the above method (#2 ) is layup time until the heels grow back. You're not going to want to ride a horse with no heels. The stresses to the deep flexor tendon and navicular bones will be just too great. The horse can be shod during the process remembering to keep the toe rasped back of course. Rasping the toe rearward and placing the shoe closer to the white line will aid in having the heels grow out without being sheered. That's the full on fix. It's a judgement call on your part - do you and can you afford the layup time to get the horses feet as correct as possible or do you live with the quick fix and just keep extending the heels of the shoe. Either way will work - either way you'll be reducing risk of lameness - sleep good which ever method you decide on , but definately address the issue of sheered heels .
Your horse or horses will love you for it.
Remember the long toe "Sheered" heel will also contribute to coffin bone rotation - Horses just do not like coffin bone rotation. Just like we humans - when our feet hurt and are sore we're not very happy , there's no difference with horses , when their feet are taken care of properly they can be wonderfully happy.
any questions - i have answers - just get ahold of me . John@Care4Horses.com
the consultation is still at no charge - that's "Free" (-: limited time basis as time permits.
Hope everyone had a great monday.
As usual , happy and safe riding and always remember to www.Care4Horses.com
John "the foot doctor" Silveira
<----click the box to go to more articles i've written
ok . How's everyone ?
Lately i've been talking a bit about heels particularly sheared / sheered heels and the difficulty involved in the repair. So lets bring this to focus and talk about two options of repair. The first will be a quick fix repair the second the full on fix. Either way works - the later however will usually require some layup time.
In the past i've talked about long toe syndrome when the front of the horses foot is allowed to drift forward ( i call it bozo the clown feet ). What typically happens when the toe drifts forward is the whole foot drifts as well pulling the heels forward in the process - hence the sheered heels. Usually you'll get some contraction of the heels as well. Sheered or contracted heels are a big problem for two reasons right off .
1- The sheered/Forward heel does not support the back of the foot - when the horse travels on it's feet the heel will then sink into the ground before it actually breaks over and comes off the ground, this stretches the deep flexor tendon putting alot of pressure on the Navicular bones.
2- When you combine the contraction ( squeezing of the heels inward) with the sheered/forward heel basically you're doubling up on the Navicular bone stress. Serious issues needing attention.
So lets look at reducing the risk of lameness regarding these issues.
First fix is rather simple. If your horse has sheered heels they run forward - so simply put a shoe on that extends past the heel . The rule of thumb is not to extend the heel of the shoe farther than the bulbs of the foot. As a general rule i add extra shoe rearward as explained but not necessarily all the way to the bulb of the foot. I don't usually have any problem with doing so. Occasionally a rear foot will come up and clip the front foot pulling at the extended heel part of the shoe ( But not often ). If it becomes problesome then shorten the shoe until the pulling/clipping stops. So what you've done with the extended shoe is support the heel of the foot - relieved stretch on the deep flexor tendon and stress on the navicular bones as well.
What you're not going to fix with the above method ( usually ) is fixing the actual slope of the sheered heel. Once the heel has "Slope" /sheered heel the angle of the sheer is constantly under pressure which just keeps forcing the sheer into the foot. The way to look at it is - if you placed a 12 inch ruler so it stands up on end basically it will support alot of weight . Now start to move the top of the ruler forward until a angle starts to form. As the angle gets more severe the load taken by the ruler is seriously compromised - support is lost. With the horses foot and sheered heels that angle will continually stretch forward due to the downward pressures exerted by the weight of the horse.
If all your horse had was the sheered heel but no contraction - well - it's actually "OK" if and as long as you fit the shoe longer to support the foot. In other words the sheered heel in and of itself won't harm your horse. I shoe horses with sheered heels as explained above often with no problems at all. The reason we decide to shoe them that way is the owner is not willing to go through the "Lay up time" to do the full repair. ok .. next.
The full repair.
What it amounts to is removing "All" the heel from the foot. Sitting the hoof all the way down in the heels almost to where the horse is on the bulbs of the foot. By doing so you have removed all the "Angle" that is constantly stretching and pressing forward perpetuating the sheered heel problem. You've sat the foot all the way down to exactly where the heel "Starts" to grow from ( The hairline ). Now when the foot starts to grow out the heel has a chance to grow straight / er up and down with a much greater chance of the heel not sheering anymore - expecially if you're having the toe of the hoof rasped to the rear stopping the long toe issues as well. This is going to take about 5 months until the heels grow back in .
The one drawback of the above method (#2 ) is layup time until the heels grow back. You're not going to want to ride a horse with no heels. The stresses to the deep flexor tendon and navicular bones will be just too great. The horse can be shod during the process remembering to keep the toe rasped back of course. Rasping the toe rearward and placing the shoe closer to the white line will aid in having the heels grow out without being sheered. That's the full on fix. It's a judgement call on your part - do you and can you afford the layup time to get the horses feet as correct as possible or do you live with the quick fix and just keep extending the heels of the shoe. Either way will work - either way you'll be reducing risk of lameness - sleep good which ever method you decide on , but definately address the issue of sheered heels .
Your horse or horses will love you for it.
Remember the long toe "Sheered" heel will also contribute to coffin bone rotation - Horses just do not like coffin bone rotation. Just like we humans - when our feet hurt and are sore we're not very happy , there's no difference with horses , when their feet are taken care of properly they can be wonderfully happy.
any questions - i have answers - just get ahold of me . John@Care4Horses.com
the consultation is still at no charge - that's "Free" (-: limited time basis as time permits.
Hope everyone had a great monday.
As usual , happy and safe riding and always remember to www.Care4Horses.com
John "the foot doctor" Silveira
<----click the box to go to more articles i've written
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